Chief Fire Officers to Receive Pay Raises

St. Charles is planning to raise the salaries of several fire chiefs so they are no longer making less than the fire fighters they supervise. 

Several chief fire officer positions in the St. Charles Fire Department will be reclassified to a higher pay grade. The five non-represented fire chief officers responsible for supervising staff sometimes make less than the fire captains they oversee whose salary is negotiated. 

For example, the chief training officer and chief medical officer salaries are $86,191, while fire captains at the top of their scale have a starting salary of $91,591. 

In the past, non-represented fire staff members have not received raises while represented fire employees have received pay raises. In addition, fire captains, who are represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 757, receive an additional $2,452 a year for overtime pay. 

"Even now with Deputy Chief (Rich) Oney, with unscheduled overtime, we have some captains who make more than he does," Fire Chief Rick Daly said. 

On Tuesday, the St. Charles City Council approved a plan to reclassify the three battalion chiefs to a higher grade on the pay scale with a starting salary of $98,144. The chief training officer and emergency medical officer will also be reclassified to a higher pay grade which starts at at $91,714 a year. 

The restructuring is expected to cost the city $30,000, which will come from savings found by not filling the Assistant Fire Chief position at a savings of $98,766 in salary plus $44,446 in benefits.  

The duties of the assistant chief position would be distributed amongst the various chief officer staff positions.